How Are Travelers Preparing for 2025's Holiday Season?

As a year winds down, plenty of Americans’ thoughts turn to travel. A 2024 Deloitte survey revealed that around half of Americans planned to travel between the end of November and the middle of January. That survey had repercussions for the broader hospitality industry, with 30% of those travelers seeking lodging in spaces like a hotel, resort or short-term lodging.

With questions surrounding the current state of the U.S. economy, you might wonder where that leaves travelers considering taking to the road or the skies for the 2025 holiday season. But according to PwC’s recent Holiday Outlook report for this year, holiday travel looks to maintain its current high levels, even as certain other holiday expenses — gifts among them — have a lower forecast for the year.

There’s an understandable reason for this: according to the survey, 48% of those planning to travel will be visiting friends and/or family. Spending slightly less on gifts is one thing, but if you have to get from Boston to Seattle for Thanksgiving, the cost of airfare is going to be a constant.

That said, in a very 2025 development, a number of people surveyed planned to use AI to help them plan travel. PwC notes that 68% of those surveyed planned to use this technology to compare different flight options, while 57% were open to using it to book their travel. (This will likely make companies like Google, who have invested in technology with this functionality in mind, very happy.)

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PwC’s survey also noted a generational divide in holiday travel plans. Among Gen Z and Millennials, 55% planned to travel this holiday season, compared to 39% of Gen Xers and 26% of Boomers. The specifics of who is taking to the road and skies this year may be a little different than past years, but scenes of crowded airports and highways should endure this November and December.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…